What do You think about Incidents In The Rue Laugier (1997)?
I liked the depiction of a pre-war moral heritage lived out in the 'libertine' 1970s. Their aspirational longings were thwarted but I wanted to shake Maud and say 'Get over it! You married a good man!' But no, she lauded reserve and containment and thereby allowed her entire joy in life (and most of her husband's) to be stolen by that cad. I enjoyed the comparison of Edward's warm, outgoing family with Maud's more detached upbringing. In the end, the more emotional side became wearisome and unhelpful. A lesson there.
—maggie
Maud is raised in Dijon, France by an emotionally removed mother after her father dies at a young age. The widow struggles to social climb on her beautiful daughter's coat tails within a restricted budget. Her haughty well-to-do sister grudgingly supplements widow Nadine's fixed income. While vacationing at this particular aunt's estate, Maud succumbs to the charms of renowned cad Tyler. Once he flees, upstanding yet bland Edward steps up to marry disappointed Maud's pompous ass.I took off a cou
—Emi Bevacqua
None of the reviews here seem to mention the fact that it is an unreliable narrator telling the story of Maud and Edward ("Please accept me as an unreliable narrator," she even writes). Their daughter, "Maffy," comes across some notes jotted by her mother into a notebook and discovered after both her parents have died. She transforms these 9 words into a story. "It is a fabrication," Maffy says, "one of those by which each of us lives, and as such an enormity, nothing to do with the truth. But perhaps the truth we tell ourselves is woth any number of facts, verifiable or not. This unrecorded story--unrecorded for a very good reason--is a gesture only, a gesture towards my mother...who told me nothing either of what happened or what failed to happen, and how she came to live with us, so far from home." So, what is more interesting than the story, to me, is how Maffy came to tell that story and why she transformed those 9 words into the story she tells.
—Lauren Albert
